http://voter5.mygeekspace.net/robe-and-wizard-hat.png

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And I encourage sex and ageplay like I encourage pedophiles to go to a wiggles concert ^_^

I have been involved with many different IN CHARACTER conflicts over at least a decade of roleplaying online. I have even lost characters that I played almost daily for years. I have never once taken IN CHARACTER stuff personally. This is one of the important distinctions of what makes a good roleplayer vs a poor roleplayer. Certainly someone who can construct amazing posts is an asset, but if they scheme out of character to make things happen, or to stumble on knowledge in character, or to manipulate the game in an in character fashion through their out-of-character friendships.

One classic example of what I would term poor RP (in my book anyway) was mentioned earlier: “EG: /me smirks as he thinks what an idiot Good Guy is”. Cheap little throw-away lines like that are the standard from the RP I’ve seen on SL – not only are they poorly constructed, short and provide little to the scene, but they also offer information that the other character(s) in the scene don’t neccessarily need or have access to. On IRC, it was frowned upon and seen as irritating. The universal battle-cry when confronted with statements like that, was “((I don’t have Auspex 5))”.

Another major problem I see is that a significant portion of RP on SL is free-form, without clearly defined and balanced rules, or worse yet, with some mishmash of homebrewed crap. Certainly there is an in-character “cultural” expectation, but there is no limitation to a character’s abilities/knowledges/talents/etc.

It comes down to the fact that the immersion SL provides for a RP community is for a lot of people, detrimental to the roleplay over all.

Also as a random aside for the lulz, I will grant that even the crappiest RP’ers I see on SL are better than the best escorts I’ve had the misfortune to “see” (read) at work.

If I had more time, I’d run a workshop or two on Good Roleplaying in Second Life and maybe even set up a Vampire: the Masquerade (yes, the old one – I don’t like the new stuff) or a Changeling: the Dreaming game. After all, it does get lonely meandering about as a rather observational bit of self-aware chimerical reality. (My one twinky character, give me a break )